Nail-driving machine with movable nosepiece



May 25, 1954 c. JA. BACON ET AL l 2,679,044

NAIL-DRIVING MACHINE WITH MOVABLE NOSEPIECE Filed Dec. 22, 1952CL//vTo/V JI 5460A/ Patented May 25, 1954 TENT orties NArL-nRrvrNoClinton J. Bacon,

Kent, Van Nuys,

Nailer, Inc., Los Angel of. California MACHINE WITH MovABLn NosnrrnosLos Angeles, and Samuel J. Calif., assignors to Nil-Matic es, Calif., acorporation Application December 22, 1952, Serial No. 327,392

(Cl. 1i4.4)

8 Claims.

which the present improvements are adapted to be embodied is disclosedin Patent No. 2,546,354.

Jamming of nailing machines often occurs because of faults and/orvariations in the nails being handled and for other reasons. It isdesirable, therefore, that provision be made for quickly and easilyclearing the machine of a faulty nail so that successive driving oinails not be' unduly interrupted. It is an object of the presentinvention to provide in a nailing machine or the character indicated,means to effectively guide nails to a position from which they aredriven and embodying in said nail-guiding means, means affording readyaccess for clearing a faulty nail from the machine.

Frequently, the board being nailed in place is not firmly seated againstthe member to which it is to be secured by the nails driven by themachine. The machine itself may often hold such a board in place.However, to insure iirm seating of thv board while a nail is beingdriven and eliminate the need for the operator to press down undulyhard, it is another object of the invention to provide aY hoard-engagingnose-piece that is power driven downwardly to press against the boardbeing nailed by the nail-driving pin to, thereby, utilize the power thatoperates said pin to press the hoard down.

The invention also has for its objects to provide suchV means that arepositive in operation, convenient in use, easily installed in a workingposition and easily disconnected therefrom, economical of manufacture,relatively simple, and of general superiority and serviceability.

The invention also comprises novel details of construction and novelcombinations and arrangements of parts, which will more iully appear inthe course of the following description. However, the drawing merelyshows and the following description merely describes one embodiment ofthe present invention which is `given by way of illustration or exampleonly.

In the drawing, like reference characters designate similar parts in theseveral views.

Fig. l is a side elevational view, partlyin longitudinal section,showing the lower voperative portion of a nail-driving machine embodyingthe present improvements.

4 Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional View of said machine portion takenat right angles to the ,showing of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 vis a similar view showing the manner in which the driving pintransmits its force to the board-depressing nose-piece.

Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view as taken on line i--L'i of Fig. 3.

The present improvements are embodied in and carried by a barrel 5, thesame having therein the manually reciprocating body t oi a pneumaticgun. Said body, per se, forms no part of the present invention and, asshown, includes an airoperated piston reciprocaole in longitudinal bore8.

The means of the present invention comprises, generally, a nailedrivingpin t that is operated on by piston "i, a retainer It for said pin 9 andcarried by the lower end of gun body 6, a boarddepressing noseepiece llin the barrel and op-y eratively engaged by said driving pin to beprojected thereby beyond the lower end of the barrel, means l2 toretract and retain said nose-piece and against the force of which thenose-piece is projected, a stirrup i3 connected to the lower end of thebarrel and` affording means for holding said barrel in position during anaihdriving ope eration, means lli to guide nails to a position fromwhich they are adapted to move into the nosepiece H, and retractablemeans l5 affording access to the guide means it.

The barrel E is provided with an upper bore i6 in which gun body treciprocates and a smaller lower bore il in which nose-piece H re,-ciprocates. At its lower end, said barrel mounts stirrup I3 whichextends laterally as shown in Fig. 1. lt will be understood that a footin said stirrup is employed to hold the barrel against movement while anail is being driven and that the same aords means to guide shift of themachine to another nail-driving position.

As seen in Figs. 2, 3, and Ll, the barrel 5 is formed with oppositelateral extensions ,it and that said extensions are each provided with alongitudinal slideway I9 enclosed, at the outside, by a removable cover2t. inward of each slide,- way the barrel is formed to have oppositeupper and lower vertical slots 2i and respectively, that are separatedby a transverse wall 23. Said slots afford communication oi theslideways IB with the bores i6 and Il.

While forming no part of the present invention, the barrel lis formedwith a lateral enlargement 2d in which is guided a nail selector 25which, for each successive cycle of operation of the machine, releases anail, supplied thereto, for movement in the guide means ld.

The nail-driver 9 that is illustrated comprises an upper shank 26 thatis guided in a reduced lower end bore 2l of the gun body and adapted tobe engaged and driven downwardly by piston 'l during reciprocation ofsaid piston by pneumatic means provided, an annular shoulder 28 at thelower end of said shank, a body portion 2?; below said shoulder, a lowernail-driving shank 363, and a conical portion Si, between the lower endof body portion 29 and the upper end of shank 3d. Said nail drivercomprises an integral element formed substantially in theabove-described manner.

The retainer Ill comprises a lower extension Ga of gun body t and, atits lower end, said extension is provided with an inreaching flange 32that constitutes a support for shoulder 28 of the nail driver when thegun body t is telescopically raised relative to barrel 5.

The nose-piece Il is slidingly tted in bore Il and has a longitudinalbore 33 in which shank 3i) of the nail driver operates. The upper end ofsaid bore is coni-cally ared at 34 to receive conical portion 3l of thenail driver E. As best seen in Fig. 3, said nare 34 is at a steeperangle with respect to a plane normal or transverse to the length ofriver il, than the slope of the sides of conical portion Si i.Therefore, the base or larger part of conical portion 3i engages thewider end of the nare 3i!- on a circular line of contact, to obviateseizure or jamming between the nail-driver 9 and nose-piece ll when theformer is percussed downward by piston 'l and is engaged with thenose-piece to similarly percuss the latter in a downward direction. Thelower end of said nosepiece is provided with an annular flange 35 thatengages the lower face 3E and limits the upward movement of saidnose-piece in bore Il. On opposite sides, said nose-piece is providedwith longitudinal recesses 3l intermediate its length.

The nose-piece retracting and retaining means l2 is shown as a pair ofsimilar retainer bars 38 that are slidingly disposed in slideways i9,springs 3S, connected to the upper ends of said bars and to cross pinst@ in the slideways to, at all times, urge said bars in an upwarddirection. Said bars, at their lower ends, are each provided with aninwardly directed pin il and said pins extend through slots 22 intorecesses 37 of the nosepiece H. At their upper ends, said bars 38 areeach provided with an inwardly directed projection l2 and saidprojection extends through slots 2l into the path of movement ofretainer l0.

The nail-guiding means lli comprises a fixed chute .13 formed in barrel5 and terminating in a slot ifi in said barrel adjacent its lower end.Said chute and slot are phased 99 with respect to slideways i9, as shownin Fig. 4. Said means I4 further includes a slot 45 in nose-piece Ilheld in alignment or register with slot lll by the pins ii of thenose-piece retainer means I2.

Since nail selector 25 releases the nails so they fall point downward inchute 43 and through slot i4 into slot 25, said two slots are enlargedat it to accommodate the heads of said nails as they come to restagainst nail-driver shank 39 while the latter is driving a nail.

The retractable means i5 comprises a nail chute lll hinged at 48 tobarrel enlargement 24 and having a passage [i9 cooperating with chute i3to guide nails to the position shown in Fig. 1. A spring 5i! resilientlyurges means l5 to enclose the effective portions of the nail-guidingmeans lll. A lower projection 5l on chute 47 extends into slots la andt5 to constitute a guiding means ldirecting the points of the nails tothe bottom of slot 45.

While spring-urged to be retractable, the means i5 normally comprises astationary chute part and has no movement on its hinge 48 during normaloperation. However, should a nail become jammed in the mechanism, saidnail can be reached for extraction by swinging chute part I5 outwardlyand exposing the nail guide Ill.

In 'the operation of the machine, the gun body is pulled upward to bringthe lower end of the nail-driver shank 30 above the nail that has beenintercepted by said shank. Said nail will then fall into bore 33 withits point resting on the board or plank 52 into which the nail is to bedriven. Now, while the stirrup I3 is used to hold the barrel stationary,air-impelled reciprocation ci plunger 1 is instituted by manualactuation of a suitable trigger. Simultaneously, the gun body isdepressed by the operator. Fig. 2 shows an intermediate position whereinthe nail is partly driven into board 52. The foregoing generally followsthe operation of a nailing machine such as exemplified in theabove-mentioned patent.

Before the nail has been completely driven home, the conical portion 3lof the driver engages the ared seat 34% oi' the nose-piece to impart tothe latter the percussive force of piston l. xThereafter, thenail-driver and said nose-piece move downwardly together under thesuccessive blows of piston 7. When the nail has finally been drivenhome, as shown in Fig. 3, the nosepiece has rm bearing on board 52, andassurance is had that said board is snugly depressed against the memberto which it is secured by the nail.

llt will be noted that the end of driver shank 3@ always has the samerelationship to the boardengaging surface 53 of the nose-piece when thedriver and nose-piece are engaged. Consequently, said shank cannot beprojected to drive the head of the nail an inordinately great distancethrough board 52 because said surface 53 oiers too great a resistance topenetration into the board.

Since the force o1 the piston 7 is here utilized to press the nose-pieceil against the board being nailed, the operator need not exert adownward force on the machine, but need merely to guide the samedownward. Consequently, the present means eases the operation of themachine materially.

While we have illustrated and described what we now contemplate to bethe best mode of carrying out our invention, the construction is, or"course, subject to modification without departing from the spirit andscope of the invention. It is, therefore, not desired to restrict theinvention to the particular form of construction iliustrated anddescribed, but to cover all modifications that may fall within the scopeof the appended claims.

Having thus described the invention, what we claim and desire to secureby Letters Patent is:

l. En a nail-driving machine having a barrel and provided with apower-percussed nail-driver movable along the axis of said barrel, anose-piece slidingly fitted in said barrel and having a longitudinalthrough bore through which said driver extends, resilient meansretracting said nosepiece into the barrel, and cooperative portions onthe driver and nose-piece and engageable during percussive movement ofthe `driver to impart the power-percussed force of the driver to thenose-piece to project the latter against the force of the retractingmeans.

2. In a nail-driving machine according to claim 1: said cooperativeportions comprising a conical portion on the nail-driver and a ared seatin the nose-piece.

3. In a nail-driving machine according to claim 1: said cooperativeportions comprising a conical portion on the nail-driver and a flaredseat in the nose-piece, the angle of slope of the face of said conicalportion being greater with respect to a plane normal to the length ofthe driver than the angle of slope of the face of said seat.

4. In a nail-driving machine having a barrel and provided with apower-percussed nail-driver movable along the axis of said barrel, anosepiece slidingly tted in said barrel and having a longitudinalthrough bore through which said driver extends, resilient meansretracting said nose-piece into the barrel, an enlarged flange on theend of the nose-piece and cooperating with the adjacent end of thebarrel to limit the retraction of the nose-piece into the barrel, andcooperative portions on the driver and nose-piece and engageable duringpercussive movement of the driver to impart the power-percussed force ofthe driver to the nose-piece to project the latter against the force ofthe retracting means.

5. In a nail-driving machine according to claim 4: said barrel havingoppositely disposed longitudinal slideways, and said resilientretracting means including retainer elements in said slide- Way andslidingly connected with the nose-piece.

6. A nail-driving machine comprising, in combination, a barrel having athrough longitudinal bore, a nose-piece slidingly fitted in the bore andhaving a through bore, means resiliently retaining the nose-pieceretracted within the barrel bore, and a power-percussed nail-driverhaving a shank extending through the bore in the nosepiece and providedwith an abutment to engage said nose-piece to move the latter in thedirection to project a portion of the same from the barrel bore.

7. A nail-driving machine according to claim 1: a ange on an end of thenose-piece and held in engagement with the adjacent end of the barrel tolimit the retracted position of said nose-piece in the barrel bore.

8. A nail-driving machine comprising, in combination, a barrel having athrough longitudinal bore, a nose-piece slidingly tted in the bore andhaving a through bore, means resiliently retaining the nose-pieceretracted within the barrel bore, a power percussed nail-driver having ashank extending through the bore in the nosepiece, and interengagingabutments, one on the nose-piece and the other on the nail-driver, toimpart to the former the percussive force and movement of the latter.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 1,213,970 Sturtevant Jan. 30, 1917 2,543,942 Shaff Mar. 6,1951 2,573,540 Cavanaugh l oct. 3o, 1951

